Sourdough Apple Crisp

Sourdough Apple Crisp is a classic New England dessert that is perfect for the fall, and will impress your dinner guests. I’ve been making this sourdough apple crisp recipe for years. It’s the perfect dessert to go with anything warm and comforting such as a cup of tea or coffee. Are you looking for a wholesome and delicious autumn dessert recipe? Then this easy sourdough apple crisp is for you!

SOURDOUGH APPLE CRUMBLE CAKE

INGREDIENTS

• CAKE
• 1cup sourdough starter
• ¹⁄₄cup vegetable oil
• 1egg
• 1cup all-purpose flour
• ²⁄₃cup honey
• ¹⁄₂teaspoon salt
• 1teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ¹⁄₂teaspoons mixed spice
• 1 ¹⁄₂cups apples, peeled and diced
• TOPPING
• 2tablespoons softened butter
• ¹⁄₄brown sugar
• ¹⁄₄cup pecans, roughly chopped
• ¹⁄₃cup oats
• ¹⁄₂teaspoon cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

• Pre heat oven to 375 F/180°C
• Grease 9×9 pan.
• CAKE. Sift flour, baking soda, salt and spice into a bowl, make a well in the centre add sourdough starter,vegetable oil,egg and honey. Mix till all ingredients are well combined. Dice the apples and fold through the cake batter. (I have used tinned apples successfully in this recipe). Pour into prepared pan.
• TOPPING. Soften the butter slightly in the microwave, roughly chop the pecans. Mix all topping ingredients in a bowl till they form a crumb. Sprinkle evenly over the cake batter.

Apple Sourdough Cobbler

A bowl of this apple sourdough cobbler is the perfect finale to a cold-weather meal.  You’ll love this delicious old-fashioned dessert.

Make sure that you have a little ice cream on hand for this special treat!

Apples are a good fruit choice for this cobbler in fall or winter. Make the cobbler with berries or strawberry and rhubarb in the spring and with peaches in late summer.

The recipe makes about six servings.

Tips

• I recommend using apples that soften easily when baked. Try mostly Cortland or Macintosh with one or two crisp apples, such as Granny Smith or Honeycrisp.
• The butter is easier to grate into the flour mixture if you chill it in the freezer for about 15 minutes.
• You can cover the fruit entirely with the sourdough topping or randomly place dough pieces over the top, leaving the fruit filling partially exposed.

Ingredients

You need the following ingredients to make the sourdough apple cobbler.

Sourdough Cobbler Crust

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup sourdough starter discard

Cobbler Filling

• 6 medium apples
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg (1/4 teaspoon if you like more)

Cobbler Topping

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Butter an 8 x 8 baking dish.

Blend the 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon for the topping. You’ll use this in the last step.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl. Set it aside while you make the filling.

Peel and slice the apples into a bowl. Add the cinnamon and nutmeg and stir them into the apples. Add the brown sugar and stir again.

Finish the batter. Using the large holes on a grater, grate the 6 tablespoons of butter into the flour mixture. Gently stir the butter with the flour to coat the butter. Stir in the sourdough starter, just enough to form a sticky dough.

Add the apples to the baking dish and spread out evenly. Scoop pieces of the dough onto the fruit.

Melt the last 2 tablespoons of butter. Brush the dough with the melted butter. Sprinkle it with the cinnamon sugar.

Bake the cobbler in the oven for 40 – 50 minutes. The topping should be golden brown.

Serve the cobbler with ice cream or heavy cream.

What Kind of Apple for Sourdough Apple Crisp?

This recipe requires a fairly long cook time. A good firm apple holds up best. Granny smith is always a good choice, but we like to mix our granny smith apples with a sweeter apple like McIntosh or Honeycrisp. Whatever apple you prefer just make sure it is a nice firm apple.

Choose Rolled Oats for Apple Crisp

I always use rolled oats not quick oats for my recipes. The final product is just so much better with the whole rolled oat rather than the chopped-up quick oats.

The Best Sugar for Apple Crisp

I almost always use Organic evaporated cane sugar in my recipes. However, you could swap that out for whatever sweetener you prefer. If you use brown sugar you might reduce the amount by about a 1/4 cup to reduce the sweetness a bit. Coconut sugar or even sucanat could be used in this recipe.

What is Sourdough Discard?

If you have a sourdough starter then you know that it is a living organism that must be fed. When you feed it daily, you wind up with more starter than you need or so much that feeding it the amount it needs to stay healthy isn’t practical. Some people throw the discard in their compost or feed it to the farm animals. That can feel wasteful at times so I like to just sneak sourdough in whatever I can.

Sourdough Discard Apple Galette

This Sourdough Apple Galette is the perfect recipe to use up sourdough starter discard. A very slight tang in a super flaky crust that is bursting with apples. The perfect no-fuss dessert for the holidays!

Prep Time40 mins

Cook Time30 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American, Italian

Keyword: apple pie, apples, Thanksgiving dessert

Servings: 6 servings

Ingredients

• FILLING
• 5 apples sliced 1/4 inch thick peeled and cored
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/3 cup of granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• DOUGH
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or use all-purpose
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 3/4 cup 1 1/2 sticks unsalted Earth Balance vegan butter stick (or butter), cut into small cubes dice
• 3 Tbsp chilled vegetable shortening
• 1/4 cup liquid sourdough starter *chilled or sub with iced water-depending on the consistency of your sourdough starter. Adjust according to it’s texture.
• EGG WASH
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon water
• TOPPING
• 2 Tablespoons apricot jam
• 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar

Instructions

• FILLING
• Add the all apple filling ingredients to a small bowl; set aside.
• DOUGH
• Food Processor Method: Put flour, salt and sugar in bowl of machine. Pulse a couple of times. Add butter and vegetable shortening into flour. Process a few seconds until mixture resembles coarse meal.
• The whole process takes 20 to 30 seconds. (I had originally added 1/4 cup sourdough starter. Check to see if dough is wet enough. If necessary, add 1-2 more tablespoons of starter (or ice water). When I put on my counter to pat into discs, I noticed it needed a little more sourdough starter and added about 1 to 2 more tbsp.
• Pat the dough into two disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and keep in refrigerator for ant least a half an hour.
• BAKE
• Lightly flour a pastry board, marble counter, or kitchen counter. Roll one disc between parchment paper or plastic wrap (or 1/2 and 1/2 like I usually do). It should be about 1/4-inch thick about 15 inches round. Roll pastry in one direction only, turning pastry continually to prevent it from sticking to the surface.
• When ready to bake, heat the oven to 350 F. I like to roll it out on parchment paper and then I just transfer the dough on top of the parchment paper to a baking tray. Or you could fold the dough into quarters, and then transfer to your baking sheet lined with parchment paper. If you folded the dough to transfer to baking tray, unfold the dough, and then add the apple mixture to the middle of the dough, leaving about 3 inches of dough around the apples. I try to line up the apples one next to the other. It really makes it so much prettier when it’s baked. It’s also fine to leave it in mound in the middle. Begin to fold over the dough toward the middle of the apples with loose pleats.
• In a small bowl, whisk the egg with the water. Brush the dough border with the egg mixture. Carefully spoon on the sugar. If you get it all around the parchment paper, it will start to smell like burned sugar. Melt the jam in a small skillet and then brush it on the apples. You could also brush the jam on the apples after it’s baked. Either way, it’s fabulous!
• Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes. You want your crust to be a nice, golden color. Not too brown and crunchy.

Notes

The second dough disk could stay wrapped in the freezer for up to 3 months.

You could make a second galette for Thanksgiving with a different fruit filling.

All images and text  ©Savoring Italy.  Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.